All a Dream
Chapter 11
"Fifteen strawberry ice creams please, two scoops each," said Harry to the teen behind the counter of The Diagon Alley Dairy, after a quick head-count. The D.A. Dairy had over 100 flavours of ice cream, 53 flavours of frozen yogurt, and the possibility of five scoops per cone.
The girl behind the counter gave Harry a strange look, but then looked slightly past him to the crowd of fourteen young witches and wizards sitting outside on the patio. "Okay, if you're sure." After some quick wand work, fifteen strawberry ice creams sat in trays with strategically placed holes to hold the cones. "That'll be 22 galleons and twenty sickles, please."
Harry paused. "Can you hold these a moment?"
The girl at the counter took the trays as Harry ran outside. "We need another 10 galleons, people."
Everyone brought out their change from their pockets, and each person chipped in just enough, slightly unevenly.
The ice cream was delicious, but it melted fast, so the whole group ended up having to wash their hands. It was then that the group separated to go home or get school supplies. Andrew (who said to call him Drew) ended up with the Potters. "I stayed with Gran this last week, but she got fed up with me. Can I stay with you until school starts?"
"That'll be fine with us," said Lily, who had met up with her three older children at The Burned Cauldron (what Harry had dreamed the Leaky Cauldron to be) along with James, Nigel and Erin. The latter was going to Hogwarts this year, and she could hardly contain her excitement.
"I thought that people started Hogwarts at eleven," said Harry to Mae.
"They do," she replied. "Erin's birthday is in mid-September."
At 1:30, Lily suggested that the family, Drew included, should split up to shop. "That way we'll be done faster, and Andrew, Stew and Harry can start to clean the room. Mae, Erin, Drew and Harry can go to Ollivander's to find a wand, I'll go to the new book store, and James, Stew and Nigel can go to Madam Malkin's, you all need new robes." Lily seemed to be a goal-oriented type of person.
.:. :.: .:.
Ollivander's was rather different than the old, tiny shop Harry had known. Instead of boxes stacked on top of each other, there were shelves upon shelves of wands, each categorized by type of wood, and the core: Phoenix feather, dragon heartstring, griffon talon, or unicorn hair, or yale horn. The room was painted a sort of ivory with blue trim, and the many shelves were untainted cedar. The only thing about Ollivander's that had not changed was the owner himself, who stepped out from behind one of the last shelves when he heard the door open.
"Ah, yes, hello Erin," Erin simply nodded shyly and backed up a little bit towards her older sister. "Oh, Mr. Potter, it's nice to see you awake! You have your father's old wand, correct, eleven inches, holly and Phoenix feather?"
"Yeah," said Harry blandly.
"And Andrew Collins, yale horn, pine, 12 and a half inches, very thin, yes?"
"Yeah, nearly blew up the whole shop with the first wand I tried didn't I?" It seemed that Drew knew Mr. Ollivander rather better than Harry or Mae did, or at least was less shy.
Mr. Ollivander chuckled. "I remember that headache very well indeed, Mr. Collins.
"And Mae Potter, one of my most difficult customers. Nine and three quarter inches, ebony, griffon talon."
"Yes, Mr. Ollivander." It appeared Mae had a certain wary respect for the old wand maker.
"Now, Erin Potter, which is your wand hand," enquired Ollivander, taking out his measuring tape.
"My left one," she said quietly, her lips barely moving.
Mr. Ollivander began the measuring, left the measuring tape to do its work, and Mae, Harry and Drew sat on some chairs by the window. The first wand Erin tried was very short, and when she twitched her hand a little, one of the legs on the desk in front of her crumbled and burst into flame. Ollivander quickly extinguished the fire and repaired the desk, taking away the wand very quickly. After about ten minutes, Erin had gotten a ten inch wand of ash with a griffon talon core. The first spell she cast was Expelliarmus. It was quite a bit of wand work for someone so inexperienced. She'd made Mae drop her wand, though she hadn't made it fly as was supposed to happen.
.:. :.: .:.
Back at the Potter household, Harry, Drew and Stew were made to clean up the room and make it suitable for three people to sleep in. This was not as bad a task as had first been anticipated, seeing as how it was quite a large room, and most of the clothes on the floor were clean. The few dirty ones that were found were simply thrown into the laundry hamper for someone else to deal with. A small argument ensued as to who would have to sleep in the sleeping bag. Eventually, the beds were deemed useless, and everyone slept on the floor. Well, they said slept. Who can really believe that three teenage boys aren't going to stay up talking all night? The parental units just took this fact as inevitable.
A/N: This is one of the shorter chapters in this story. The next chapter will be longer. Oh, and yes, the fact that Drew's and Stew's names rhyme was intentional.
P.S. I'VE BEEN WRITING THIS FIC FOR ONE MONTH EXACTLY!
